Advanced Study in the History of Modern India, 1707-1813

Dr. J.L. Mehta’s Advanced Study in the History of Modern India is a comprehensive study on the history of modern India between AD 1707 and 1813. The study begins with the death of Aurangzeb, the last imperial ruler of the Mughal dynasty, and carries the story of political and military developments through the eighteenth century, which comprises ‘an epoch of transition’ from the medieval to the modern period of Indian history. The narrative shatters the contention of contemporary European writers that it was ‘the dark age’ of Indian history, characterized by ‘political anarchy and misgovernment’, until the British brought it under their sway. The main thesis of the author is that the political developments of the period were marked by two distinct phases. The first phase, which lasted from 1707 to 1760, saw the rapid disintegration of the Mughal power and its replacement by the Marathas who, having suffered a setback from Ahmad Shah Abdali in the Third Battle of Panipat, recovered their hegemony under their fourth Peshwa Madhav Rao (1761-62); and the second phase, which saw the consolidation of power of the English traders-turned-colonists over Carnatic and Bengal, and the struggle for supremacy between them and the Marathas. The author makes a judicious use of the contemporary English and Marathi sources and liberally utilizes the extensive researches done by modern historians to portray a compact picture of their findings in an extensive treatment of the subject matter in the form of a textbook for the benefit of students of colleges and universities.